Talk to any EDM artist and they’ll tell you: artists who previously seemed unreachable are now within grasp. That should be even more so the case for Calvin Harris, who’s enjoyed considerable top 40 success teaming with Rihanna, Ne-Yo and more. Yet Harris didn’t think he had any chance of securing Florence Welch for their new “Sweet Nothing” single.

So, why does he think she agreed? “I think she would’ve done it if the song was right and the people were right and it was all at the right time,” he says, adding, “I did a remix for her and she owed me a favor – I guess part of it was that.”

The track will be included on Harris’ 18 Months album, which will be released on October 29th. Befitting its title, the collection will be a look back at his ascent to the top of the pops over the last year and a half. “It’s like a compilation album. It’s everything I did over the past 18 months, so [it’s got] Rihanna, Kelis, Ne-Yo, Florence, Dizzee Rascal, Tinie Tempah, Ellie Goulding,” he says. “It looks good.”

For Harris, this is the 2012 model of the album. “If you approach every track like it’s a single, it can never really be an album in the traditional sense,” he says. “So it’s very much a modern album in that you can go on iTunes, see a collection of tracks, which you may have heard, and you can just buy what you want.”